


it was supposed to be you

by mazabm



Series: revolution wears you well [3]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Captain Renji, F/M, Gen, Other, Post-Canon, Reform AU, Revolution, Slow Build, Soul Society Politics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2020-12-17 00:07:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21045032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mazabm/pseuds/mazabm
Summary: “It was supposed to be you.”  Renji told Ichigo.  “This was supposed to be your fight.”“Yeah, well you got there first, Captain. Now give us our orders.”They follow him to war and he is not quite sure how it happened.The reform AU where the dream team takes Soul Society into a place worth dying for.can be read separately from the rest of the series





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a separate but connected story in Reform AU, set from Renji's point of view, it's opening is much shorter compared to Ichigo's but they will have similarities and differences. This one will also end up being much shorter than Ichigo's.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is the setup

It took Ichigo dying. He was the catalyst, after all. 

One day, his body refused to take the Shinigami, and it’s almost funny, how what killed him wasn’t a war, just time, which is how normal people go. Which is what he deserved, he deserved to live and love and build a family and protect them. He became a teacher, and Renji lived for every tale of his students. He’s buried across from his mother and went to his own funeral, he made peace in a way that no other soul will ever get a chance to.

Ichigo knew his time on in the Living World was not done but he turned to Rukia and Renji and let them lead him to Soul Society. Renji lead the way, Rukia never let go of his hand. 

Weeks later, once he was acclimated to Soul Society, he planted his hand on Renji’s desk and said, “What do I have to do?” 

They sent him to the Academy; he didn’t get special treatment. 

It took Renji realizing the power of his Division. 

He and his lieutenant, a woman named Kamino Ryu were new to the Seventh which meant they worked together to earn his men’s respect and keep it.

Their job was to keep the peace between the Rukongai and the Seireitei, not better the Seireitei or worry about the outer districts. It was to keep balance and peace. He lasted two weeks.

So they plot together, his lieutenant and he on how to better the Rukongai. Ryu is from West 36th, she never suffered like he did in the slums of Inuzuri but she grew up wanting. For his every brash suggestion, she quietly excelled with kido and together they planned a better world. 

Ichigo visited from the Academy, holding the stories of his classmates in his chest, nowhere in the Rukongai was perfect and Renji looked at the entire map and wanted to change it all. 

Rukia watched him with a worried expression on her face but said nothing. 

It took him being thrown by a Hollow in the East 23rd for him to realize how unprotected the outer districts were. 

“Why did you get in front of me?” Ryu demanded once she helped him hobble back to the office after the Fourth finished patching him up. Bandages wrapped around his neck and sword arm that he already knew he wanted to tear off. “I had it!”

“I know,” Renji said, his lieutenant glared at him hard. “I didn’t plan to jump in front of you.”

“You can’t plan everything, Captain!” He snorted, the old him, ruled by impulsiveness and his heart would have never believed he would become one of those Captains who plotted and planned every move down to the second, reacted badly when he couldn’t. When the Hollow had swung its tail to catch Ryu off guard, Renji reacted. He could still hear her scream in his ears. 

“There were three patrols in the West District, one was needed, not one was close!” Ichigo leaned away from his anger, as his palm slammed the desk. “One Hollow killed 50 people!” 

“So we get more patrols,” Ichigo said as if it’s easy.

“It’s not that easy,”. Renji started, he already done the math, there was no way to split his men more without leaving some part of the Rukongai defenseless and patrols stopped after the 50th district because beyond it was No-man’s-land, and he wanted to change that too but it was difficult, and he was lacking the manpower for it.

“Then we make it that easy! If we have to do it, we do it.” His hands slammed the desk in front of Renji’s face. That’s the boy Renji knew, that tore apart Soul Society’s foundations with his determination, all fire and sharp. Renji hasn’t seen him in years. When the war was over, it was hard to turn off the part that wants to destroy to rebuild, Ichigo turned it off but it cost him. He got to live peacefully for a time, build a family, a life.

“We missed you,” Renji said, like pulling teeth. He doesn’t know how else to communicate the feeling in his chest to the other man. Rukia had brought it up first, the way they all changed. War had become a part of them and with it gone, they no longer fit where they were supposed to. It’s why, she said, you finally make a good captain. Wasn’t quite a compliment, not quite an insult, but he took it from her. 

“I’m here,” Ichigo said. His eyes told him he knew what Renji meant, understood. “I’m here.” 

After that moment ended, quiet and focused. They got to work. 

“You really think it’s possible, a full-scale communication and transportation system from the furthest district to the Seireitei?” Ryu’s ideas of creating a multi-layered kido net or beacons of energy to protect the Rukongai similar to the one inside of the Seireitei was a work of genius. She knew the intricate ways they could possibly do it, it would take a lot of experimenting, but she almost looked excited at the prospect. He chose her to counter his kido abilities, but he knew that she might just succeed him one day. 

“I think if we plan it right, it could change everything, sir,” Ryu said before she turned her eyes on Ichigo. “You will help us right?” It had been his idea to increase communication and transportation first, had looked at his memories of the Living World and looked at Soul Society and wondered where he could combine the two. When Ryu asked if he’ll help, he saw Ichigo’s eyes widen and he looked to Renji, the question while simple, could be read a thousand ways: when Ichigo graduated the Academy would he join them in the Seventh, would he fight alongside them when (and it would) go sour?

“Of course,” Ichigo said. Renji grinned. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He and Rukia go way back, will they go forward?

Rukia touched the bandages on his arm with a frown tugging at her lips, she didn’t speak but didn’t have to. She looked at the map on his desk, saw each district, some with words of what they need (and Ichigo’s sharp handwriting wrote love on Inuzuri and food beneath it). 

“You’re really going to fix it?” It was a whisper, Renji almost had to strain his ears to hear. But when Rukia looked at him, her eyes so big, he understood.

“I’m gonna try.” She smiled then, a soft sweet one that makes his heart feel the same way he did when he was younger. 

“What can I do to help?”

Ichigo graduated from the Academy and joined the Seventh as his Third, it was less of a big deal than everyone worried about. 

It makes him happier than he would admit that Ichigo chose the seventh over Shunsei and Byakuya. When he was getting drunk at the party in the Eleventh to celebrate, Ikkaku punched him for stealing Ichigo from the Eleventh. It was fairly normal as normal could get, and that piece of him that was still, the boy from Inuzuri wanted to pinch himself to make sure he was not dreaming. 

Rukia and Ryu together were unstoppable. They exchanged kido theories over tea and Ryu was star-struck in Rukia’s presence which was fair because Renji was too. Rukia, having more power (and she would be a Captain when Ukitake retired which was a day that crept faster on them every day) could put some of their theories into actions. It was their joint power that launched the first pillar of energy into the sky, intent of strengthening the connection that powered everything in the Seireitei. 

“It’s unsustainable.” She told him. “You would need someone constantly feeding it energy for it to work and you need way over one for the entire Rukongai.” 

“But did it work?”

“Renji.” She put her hands on her hips.

“Well,” 

“It strengthened the connection, but! It won’t last without a power source.” 

“We’ll work on it.” He was re-planning, refocusing, but she was right at his heels, tugged at his arm, 

“If we went to twelve or the kido corps, maybe,” 

“No!” She startled back just a little at his tone, before she narrowed her eyes and leaned forward on her toes. “Let’s keep it within us right now.” He said before she spoke again. “I mean it, Rukia.” He was pleading with her but he knew that if something were to happen to her because of this he would never forgive himself. She looked at him with something unreadable in her eyes. 

Years later, when Byakuya looks him in his eyes begging to know if she’s safe, he’ll think of this moment. 

He was a paranoid bastard, but he had a good cause, Ryu ran her hands once over his wall, her hands glowed yellow and highlighted three bugs. He took special pride as he watched her crush them. He didn’t like when other Captains told him to be careful or felt as if Shunsei was testing him every time he stood in his presence. Even Rukia’s own Captain commented on his lieutenant taking advantage of her free time. He wondered if it’s Ichigo, if they’re wondering what Renji would do with his power and it was a funny thought as if Renji could ever force Ichigo to do anything. When Renji gave the other man orders, Ichigo considered them and did his own thing achieving what Renji wanted in the process. It worried him more than he liked, the attention, the focus on his Division (and after Aizen, they have a right to suspect Captains doing what they wanted)but when Ichigo, Rukia, and Ryu looked at him like it just might work, it reminded him to work harder. 

“Permission to go to Earth, sir.” And Ichigo never asked for permission  so  Renji looked up with a suspicious eye to see Ichigo in front of him, Rukia leaning against the wall behind him. 

“What’s going on?” 

“He’s shadowing me, and if it doesn’t work out, you won’t have to know.” She said with a smirk and he rolls his eyes. The power dynamics between them were all messed up, Rukia was a captain in everything but name, Ichigo had enough power to level the city in his sleep and choose not to. He trusted them not to die. “Granted.” He said waving his hand at Ichigo who beamed even while scowling. 

“Don’t do anything stupid while we’re gone,” Rukia said, her hand around Ichigo’s arm pulling him out. He found himself smiling in their wake and then Ryu swept in with another pile of files for him to look through and he’s dragged back into reality. 

Later, Rukia told him of taking the train to Tokyo, her cheeks pink, her smile wide. She didn’t have to say it but he can imagine her hand in Ichigo’s, her leaning her head onto his shoulder. He didn’t comment about how they both probably had way more work to do than visiting Tokyo. He didn’t make a big deal out of it; he enjoyed hearing about Rukia talk about going into a bunny cafe, and he ignored the burning in his chest. She leaned on his shoulder when he was quiet for too long and sipped her drink, closer to him than she had ever been. He breathed out. 

“Urahara thinks the net’s possible.” She whispered to him much later. “It would burn them out but you would only need one person who knows the incantation, and another person with enough power to sustain her. It would affect not just the Rukongai but all of Soul Society.” He knew it was not a slip, the same way he knew they were both thinking of Ichigo using all his power to once again do what needed to be done. 

“It won’t come to that,” Renji told her, insistent and sure. 

“What if it’s the only thing that works?”

“We figure something else, we have time.” He said, but it’s soft as if speaking it too loudly will ruin it. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alright lets try to keep this going

His own men force his hand.

“Sir,” Ryu stood in front of him, a girl behind her in Rukongai rags, a worried, angry expression on her face. “You’re gonna want to hear this.” 

“He did what?” And the force of Ichigo’s reiatsu hit them all hard. It dissipated suddenly when Ichigo noticed how pale the girl is. “Let me handle this.” Renji hated that he felt relieved at Ichigo’s anger, hated that it focused him. They have every right to be angry, hearing that one of his unseated officers was abusing his power in the Rukongai, abusing innocent women, it made his blood boil. But, 

“Slow down,” Renji said. 

“He’s an unseated officer, my problem, hurting innocent people! If he wasn’t a noble son, you would already be moving.” He flung his hands out and it hit Renji with a wave of his power. “If you let him get away with this, you’re no better than Byakuya used to be!” 

“Enough!” Renji laid his hands on the desk and breathed out. The tension in the office was palpable, the young girl sat in the middle of it. “Do you agree?” He asked Ryu who locked her jaw together to nod. 

“If it was one of us, you wouldn’t hesitate.” She said, and he bowed his head before looking to the young girl. 

“Ma’am,” He said to the girl, and she dropped her head with pink cheeks. “We will help your Mommy, okay?” He looked up at his Lieutenant. “Ryu, escort her back home.”

“Captain!” Ryu had never disobeyed an order of his and he knew she wasn’t going to start now. “She’s not safe there until we handle him!” 

“Bring her mother back with you, quickly.” Ryu dropped her head. “They’ll stay here.” Renji leaned back in his chair. 

“What are you going to do?” She asked and he looked at Ichigo and nodded. 

“Make an example of him.” 

Ichigo moved like a hunting tiger gathering their division together, quietly moving patrols to get everyone where he wanted him. There was something right in his movements that Renji did not question. 

When Renji took over the Seventh Division he made it clear that any man found committing crimes outside the walls would be treated as if he had committed the crime inside the walls. He never thought he would have to follow through with that threat. 

When unseated officer Komayumi Nihiko saw the woman standing behind Ryu something ugly crossed his face. 

“You’re really gonna listen to some bitch from the Rukongai?! She’s,” He never got to finish his sentence when Ichigo moved, blood-splattered bright red against the ground and Nihiko fell with a heavy thud. 

“Get up and fight someone who will fight back.” Zangetzu wasn’t even unsheathed and Renji felt his eyes widen a little, it was quicker than he had ever seen Byakuya move and besides Yoruichi, no one could come close to his former Captain, well except Ichigo who wasn’t even breathing hard. 

Once, there was a young boy, bleeding out on the ground determined to keep fighting, to save Rukia and now that boy who grew into a man, used the same move, easily. Renji shifted uneasily on his feet, Ichigo’s voice was too biting to be him, it reminded him of Ichigo wearing his Hollow mask. “He’s not gonna move,” Ichigo said, and Renji watched as the line in his back relaxed. “He’d know he’d lose.” Renji found his voice. 

“Get em up!” He said, his voice raised to carry and his other men looked at him with panicked eyes. It took him a second to realize they thought he was going to let Ichigo kill him. “Up!” 

“Sir,” One started. None of them moved. 

“Nihiko will live and face his crimes that he has committed against these women.” He heard a soft gasp behind him. “Any man like him will face the same. Get him up, Now!” The men pulled the man up, there is a long shallow cut across his face and body. Ichigo could have killed him, but he didn’t. “You are under arrest for crimes against the Rukongai and her people. Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Renji asked him. The man spat at his feet and he heard Ryu gasp. “Take him away.” Everyone else in his division was frozen to their positions. 

“Anyone who thinks he is exempt from obeying the law and protecting the innocent, request a transfer now because I will not be this lenient again.” With that he dismissed them. Ichigo had not moved from the spot where he struck Nihiko down. 

“Ichigo,” he heard Ryu start, and as Renji turned to walk to him, strong hands grabbed his robes and stopped him from moving. 

“Thank you!” It was the woman from the Rukongai, the bruises of her attack still clear on her face but she was smiling, tears in her eyes, “We won’t forget this, Captain Abarai.” It was spoken like an omen or a benediction and when she let go of his robes and he turned back to look at Ichigo, the other man was gone. 

Ten men transferred, two men retired, he expected Shunsei to pull him into his office at Command. To make him explain himself. He didn’t. 

Meanwhile, his people who haven’t left walked around him on eggshells, freezing all together when Ichigo entered the room. There was a reverence in their movements now as if his show of power had reminded them of the man he used to be. Ryu was the only one in the division that acted as if nothing had changed, she continued to drop files on his office, practiced her kido with Rukia, sparred with Ichigo knowing he was going easy on her. 

“We have to do something, sir.” Ryu for all her academy training had suffered by being in constant contact with the walking disrespect that was Rukia and Ichigo, tacking on sir to the end of her sentences as an afterthought. “You have to say something to your seated officers at least.” He had been pretending as if nothing had changed, tightened up patrols, ignored Ichigo save when the man was actually in his office. Continued to press Ryu to come up with a way to connect the districts, ignored Rukia when she asked what happened. Ignored Byakuya, wait. 

“Don’t be pathetic.” The other man said over tea, judgment clear in his face. “Your men attempted to call your bluff, you did not let them.” 

“But they don’t trust me now!” 

“Does that matter? They will listen when you need them too, they will not doubt your will.” 

Maybe that’s the voice of a person who has been a captain for over twenty years or the man who took in a girl that looked just like his dead wife and ignored her, or the boy who was so committed to obeying his family he almost killed her and Renji.

Byakuya laid his hand on top of Renji’s.

“You traded their trust for their obedience, it’s not such an unfair trade.”

**Author's Note:**

> Will post these at the same pace as RWYW, but I will probably repost this story as a single shot, it's not broken up the same way RWYW is.


End file.
